Calculators

April 20, 2008

Elevator problems

...The tenants of a large office building complained about the increasingly poor elevator service. A consulting firm specializing in elevator-related problems was employed to deal with the situation. It first established that average waiting time for elevators was too long. It then evaluated the possibilities of adding elevators, replacing existing elevators with faster ones, and introducing computer controls to improve utilization of elevators. For various reasons, none of these turned out to be satisfactory. The engineers declared the problem to be unsolvable.

When exposed to the problem, a young psychologist employed in the building's personnel department made a simple suggestion that dissolved the problem. Unlike the engineers who saw the service as too slow, he saw the problem as one deriving from the boredom of those waiting for an elevator. So he decided they should be given something to do. He suggested putting mirrors in the elevator lobbies to occupy those waiting by enabling them to look at themselves and others without appearing to do so. The mirrors were put up and complaints stopped. In fact, some of the previously complaining tenants congratulated management on improvement of the elevator service...

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

What do with an outmoded technology? Turn it into entertainment. A plethora of services using photo booths have sprung up. In the UK, Boothnation offers customized booths for use at events

Wallace and Gromit fan patents one of his inventions. A boy of five is thought to be the UK's youngest person to patent an invention after coming up with a labor-saving broom to help his father sweep leaves